If you are studying China...

...Alex & I highly recommend Chu Ju's House by Gloria Whelan!

Chu Ju is fourteen years old and her mother has a new baby. Unfortunately, it isn't a son. Because of the Chinese One-Child Policy (which sometimes allows families outside of the city to have two children), Chu Ju's family decides to give the baby girl to an orphanage and try a third time for a son. Chu Ju decides to run away so her family will only have one child and her baby sister won't be given to an orphanage.

Wilkworms (image from Wikipedia)

As Chu Ju makes a life for her self, she has some really interesting jobs: whe works on a fishing boat with a family, works in a silk worm factory with a lot of orphan girls, and works on a small rice patty with a woman and her son. Throughout the story, you learn a lot about these jobs. For example, did you know you could hear the chomping of a room full of silkworms? Wow!

Rice Paddy image from Wikipedia